High-level Overview

I find the game to be way too easy even on Very Hard mode and this mod aims to address that in the simplest way that preserves the existing game design. It contains two separate modules:

1. Level Scaling, scaling all enemies up to your level. There are several alternate versions created due to popular demand.
2. Damage Scaling, which can scale up or down damage to NPCs and players. This is completely configurable in game (!!!), with the scaling amount changing according to the target's level. (This damage scaling is equivalent to the previous NPC Health Boost this mod previously had, but it has less side effects: no need to scale status effect damage separately, and it doesn't affect weapon XP)

• For further balancing I recommend my other mods Simple XP Multiplier (to reduce Street Cred!), Sensible Stamina and Athletics, Challenging Breach Timer, and Armor Fix for all Weapons.
• This mod will always focus on making simple balance changes to make the game more enjoyable while changing as little as possible. If you want more of an overhauled experience there are lots of options out there.
• Check out some cool new difficulty options in Scissors' new SDO - Scissors Difficulty Options mod.
• For more fine-tuned damage multipliers (per-weapon!), check out Ultimate Damage Control by KiroKobra.

1) Level Scaling

The game actually has some level scaling, but it's not what you would imagine. Unmodded behaviour is:

• Enemies have minimum levels. Once you pass an enemy's min level they scale to match yours exactly for 4-16 more levels (this is defined per neighbourhood, e.g. Kabuki enemies start at 4 and scale up to 10). Once you pass that higher threshold (4-16 levels over the minimum) they stay at the same level until you reach 5 over them. After that they scale up, always staying exactly 5 levels under you, to a maximum of 45.
• The difference between player level and the NPC's level is used to scale both the player and enemy damage in favour of the higher leveled person. For example if the player is 5+ levels above an enemy, the player does 2x damage, and the enemy does 0.7x damage to the player. 

Versions (ONLY USE ONE AT A TIME!):

• "Proper Level Scaling": lower leveled enemies are scaled up to your level.
• "Level Scaling with Higher Minimum Levels": like above but the minimum enemy level of some neighbourhoods is scaled up. See the images section for a map of the rebalanced level areas.
• "Level Scaling Plus 3" (found in Optional Files): keeps (almost) all enemies at least 3 levels above you.
• "Level Scaling Plus 6" (found in Optional Files): keeps (almost) all enemies exactly 6 levels above you.
• "Level Scaling with No Minimum Levels" (found in Optional Files): sets the minimum levels to 1 so all enemies are always your level.

(warning: the virtual tutorial with T-Bug can't be completed when using Level Scaling Plus 3/6, because it increases the hack costs too much)

NOTE: For all of the level scaling versions, there are some enemies in the world that don't get scaled. There are enemies that stay level 0, and random others that stay at some fixed nonzero level.

2) Damage Scaling

Use this component to basically make your own customized difficulty level. You can make it easier or harder to kill enemies, or to make it easier or harder to kill V. All multipliers are set on a curve with points at level 1, 10, 20, 30 ,40, 50, so you can customize a difficulty progression. This mod used to have a component that just increased NPC health, and this is a much more versatile alternative.

This mod is configured from the "Mods" menu in the Settings menu, under the "RMK" or "RMK MODS" tab. This can be done any time, including in the middle of gameplay. Translations for different interface languages are automatic.



As you can see, there are multiple presets, and the ability to remember your last custom settings. The numbers you are setting are damage multipliers at a given level of NPC or player. Levels in between the ones you set get a multiplier based on where they fall on the "curve". I included an "RMK Balanced" preset for NPCs, which has no change at level 1, going down to 0.33 multiplier at level 50 (equivalent to a 3x health boost). I don't really have a recommendation for player damage, though I think it could probably be reduced a bit pre patch 1.5... I'm not sure how the balance is yet in patch 1.5+.

There is an extra option for NPCs, which is to choose how much of the NPC's damage multiplier to apply to their heals. I added this because someone pointed out that Sasquatch was quite difficult to beat with a 3x health boost, since she regains 1.25% of her health per second. If you boost her health, her heal boosts too. This mod multiplies damage instead, but it actually still has the same effect. Heals become relatively more or less potent. If you find that a boss fight is really tough, consider setting the Heal Scaling to 50% or higher. Otherwise I recommend keeping it at 0% until you encounter an issue.

Finally there is one option each for NPCs and Players to control whether the damage multiplier apply in certain cases. For NPCs you can choose to apply the multiplier to damage from other NPCs (and any other source that's not the player). For the player you can choose to apply the multiplier to damage from the player's own grenades, explosions that you set off, etc. It won't affect dying from being in a car that explodes.

Installation:

• IMPORTANT: This mod (Damage Scaling only - not level scaling) depends on Cyber Engine Tweaks and Native Settings UI. Download and install them first!
• To install this mod, extract the zip file into the Cyberpunk 2077 installation folder (Damage Scaling files go to "Cyberpunk 2077/bin/x64/plugins/cyber_engine_tweaks/mods/DamageScaling", and the level scaling file goes in "Cyberpunk 2077/archive/pc/mod").

Old components of this mod

The following modules are still available in the "Old Files" section but no longer recommended:

• NPC Damage Reduction - Earlier version of Damage Scaling which only allowed you to scale damage to NPCs down.
• Higher Health NPCs - Archive files that boost health by various amounts (1.5x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x, etc.) This is now replaced by Damage Scaling.
• Scale Status Effect Damage - This was required when using Higher Health NPCs, because status effect damage was done as a %, and more health meant more damage. This isn't an issue with Damage Scaling.
• XP Rebalance - This mod was an attempt to rebalance all 3 types of XP (level, street cred (SC), and skills) to fix base game issues (SC levels too fast, skills a little too slow) AND to counter problems introduced by my level scaling and NPC health mods (they lead to more XP, less weapon skill XP). Most of the skill XP issues were from Higher Health NPCs (because you get XP based on damage done). Now with Damage Scaling this issue is much smaller and I would recommend just using Simple XP Multiplier to fix Street Cred gains being too high.

XP Rebalance Uninstallation: This mod changes the XP needed for next level/SC. It's not permanent, just loaded at the time you load your game. So if you are using the mod and have 1900 XP and need 2000 for the next level, then you remove the mod (lowering the required XP under 1900), you will level up instantly when you load that save. Similarly, you can gain a skill level immediately when adding the mod and loading a game, because those level requirements are lowered. The save file only knows your current level and XP points, your entire history of levelling up is not recalculated or altered at any time.

The following modules have been moved out to their own mod pages:

• Shorter Breach Timer and Immediate Start - Is now in a better version with in-game menu: Challenging Breach Minigame
• Armor Works Against Melee - I've released a better version of this as a separate mod: Armor Fix for All Weapons

Check out my other mods:

New Features/Systems

• Stealthrunner - Stealth Gameplay Expansion
• AI Netrunners Enhanced
• Sensible Stamina & Athletics
• Custom Quickslots for Consumables and Cyberware Abilities
• Lifepath Bonuses and Gang/Corp Traits
• Toxicity
• Lynx Paws Reimagined
Difficulty and Balance Tuning
• Level Scaling and Balance
• Simple XP Multiplier
• Silent Silencers and Throwing Knives
• Challenging Breach Minigame
• Convo Skill Check Scaling
• Smarter Target Analysis
Bug Fixes

• Status Bar Bug Fixes
• Optical Camo Bug Fixes
• Proximity Mine Audio Bug Fix
• Hacking Bug Fixes
• Armor Fix for All Weapons
• Cool Vs Don't Die From Explosions (AKA Explosion Nerf)
Quality of Life
• Weather Probability Rebalance
• Crafting Quality of Life
• Filter Saves by Lifepath and Type
• Clear Skill Checks

Credits

• CP77 Tools are used to make this mod.
• redscript by jekky.
• psiberx for amazing CET utilities this mod uses
• Cyber Engine Tweaks
• Keanu Wheeze for Native Settings UI